35 TO LIFE

"35 TO LIFE"   The first time I saw this Gorilla, he was living behind glass in a concrete cage in a shopping mall in Tacoma, Washington.  He had been there many years and hadn’t seen blue sky, sunshine or another gorilla, since he had arrived.  When I painted this guy, I wanted to show the sadness I'd seen and the sadness I'd felt when I saw and heard his story. I named the painting “35 to Life” which was approximately how long he was locked in that concrete cage. A couple of years after I first saw him, he was rescued and moved to the Atlanta Zoo where he lived for the next 15 years.  When he died, they figured he was between 48 and 50 years old. 

The first giclee'  sold of this painting was bought by a Circuit Court Judge and it hung for years in his Judicial Chambers.